simply grow

Tag: goals

One important part of success is having a clear, compelling focus, mission, or goal. We as leaders unwittingly stumble here because it’s a far-from-trivial task. We frequently end up running without a focus or, if we have one, it’s not clear or it’s not compelling.

If we ask ten people, “What are we up to? Who are we and what is our mission?” and get ten quite different answers, then either we don’t have a focus or it’s not clear.

And how can we tell if it’s compelling? We’ll know it is when it feels great, we are excited, and more than one person notices that the magic is starting to happen.

Because we know that day-to-day troubles and whims can distract us, we commit to achieving our goals, no matter what. We then proceed to turn our goals into realities.

Something happens along the way, though. Having started work on the goals and moving closer to them, we can see things much more clearly than when we had first set the goals. We have learned. And we often realize that we need to reset our goals. But we feel bound by our original commitments. This is the guilty, dark side of goals.

Rigidly holding onto a goal that no longer makes sense is a great way to discourage and disengage all involved. No one wants to achieve a goal that has lost its meaning.

As long as we aren’t making excuses, we get to update goals as often as we want.

One of the four main ingredients of success–for ourselves or our organizations–is having clear, compelling goals. And despite knowing this, we often avoid committing to such goals.

One reason for this is that we see the goal as a prison. What if we commit to a goal and then, later, realize a better option? We feel if we commit we must follow through. Isn’t that how we’re supposed to do it?

Instead, let’s allow our goals to evolve. Here’s one good way to do that: set the goal qualitatively. Examples: “I will feel light, healthy, and energetic” or “Our sales team will provide predictable revenue each quarter that gives us more than enough money for short- and long-term commitments.”

We can then set more specific, quantitative goals and feel free to adjust them as we move ahead and learn.

Tempting as it may be, you cannot set such goals for others, though. That would be outrageous. Setting goals for others only fosters resistance, feigned helplessness, disengagement, and distraction. They may not say it out loud, but if you try to set Large, Nutty, Impossible goals for them (e.g. extra-large sales objectives or heavily constrained time-lines or budgets), they will be pushing back and thinking, “No, no, no, you can’t make me.”

Here’s what you can do. You can explain to people how achieving Large, Nutty, Impossible goals would help everyone involved. You can create incentives. And you can coach people through setting these big goals for themselves. You can invite them.